Now that Sheikh Zayed owns one of the largest energy income trusts in Canada, and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing now owns TransAlta Power Income Fund, it has become quite clear who Stephen Harper had in mind when he wrote the following words in the National Post in 2005:

"Seniors are actually enraged, frightened and panicked about potentially losing retirement savings that they count on for the essentials of daily living."Income trusts are popular with seniors because they provide regular payments that are used by many to cover the costs of groceries, heating bills and medicine. They also provide tax relief from a government that is addicted to taking too much money from their pockets and spending it without care, and very often without meaningful results.

So one must ask, why is the government clamping down on the retirement savings of seniors and investors?”

Well Stephen, that is a most insightful question that you posed in 2005, that demands an answer in 2008, since, in the end, it was you who did the clamping and not the Liberals. It was you who promised never to raid seniors nest eggs, only to turn around and do that very thing.

Obviously you have a particularly close place in your heart for the world’s billionaires, as they seek safe havens to invest their abundant wealth in. Perhaps you derive your affinity for the lifestyles of the rich and famous from your wife Laureen, when you let it slip that your wife Laureen thinks that Bill Gates is “the worlds sexiest man”. Not because of Bill Gates’ philanthropy, but based on Laureen Harper’s reasoning that "when a man has that much money, he's sexy".

Well that pretty much explains the Harper family mindset and value system. Welcome to the third world, Canada style. It's too bad that Stephen and Laureen Harper don’t think that it's “sexy” to honour election promises, or see the sexiness associated with the act of seniors being in a position after a life time of hard work of being to have sufficient income from their investments to “cover the costs of groceries, heating bills and medicine”.

Evidently I am not alone in my questioning of the merit of selling the assets that provide the basis for Harper’s other bold assertion that Canada is an Energy Superpower, while Harper is simultaneously encouraging and fostering the sale of those very assets to middle eastern oil companies on the cheap. Assets that were otherwise happily owned by average tax paying Canadians,

Stephen Harper solved the age old conundrum of how to sell coal to Newcastle by imposing a draconian 31.5% tax on the 20% of Canada’s oil and gas production that is held in publicly traded trusts and the 80% of Alberta’s energy infrastructure assets that are held in publicly traded trusts on the average Canadians who owned, while allowing foreign big oil to be free from this tax.

In addition, Harper further advantaged foreign big oil to acquire these newly undervalued trusts by relieving big oil of the growth restrictions that Harper imposed on these businesses whilst in the hands of average Canadians. Harper furthered greased the slides of takeovers by foreign big oil by eliminating the 15% withholding tax these players would have had to pay on the debt they used to acquire these companies. The technical term for such an unlevel playing field is called event driven arbitrage. In layman’s terms its called a sweetheart deal for the rich and famous.

And what is Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s words to Abu Dhabi Energy’s future acquisition ambitions in Canada? Please, help yourself. Your petrodollars are most welcomed here, in a way that average Canadians’ are not.

Next on Harper’s agenda will be solving the problems plaguing the Canadian automotive manufacturing sector. Rather than helping fund the start up of the idled Ford engine plant in Windsor, Harper has better use for that $60 million. It’s a sure thing. Canada will soon be opening the new Bentley dealership in Abu Dhabi to cater to the uber wealthy carpetbaggers from the middle east who have just struck oil in Canada.....of the most viscous and greasiest kind.

9 comments:

Xenos
said...

The government indifference to the sell-off of PrimeWest to Taqa is surprising. To make a long argument short, the present value of future taxes is $1 billion (roughly 40% of $250 million over 20 years.) The present value of the energy trust sector to the Canadian governments, before Flaherty started his butchering of the Income Tax Act, was roughly $75 billion.

Is it surprising that a Conservative government would replace owners who’d pay $75 billion in future tax with owners who’ll pay zip? Except, not if the government is Conservative. You see, big ‘C’ Conservatives are not what their name suggests. They are not fiscally conservative. Mulroney tripled the national debt in only nine years. He’s the guy that created the healthcare funding crisis.

Given the Conservative track-record, it is not surprising that Harper doesn’t really care about government finances or debt.

What totally astounds me is that the NDP have said nothing. They must be stupid not to have figured out that last year’s budget delivers Canada on a platter to foreign investors. May be the NDP read too much Globe & Mail and National Post?

Stephen Harper said : "Seniors are actually enraged, frightened and panicked about potentially losing retirement savings that they count on for the essentials of daily living."Income trusts are popular with seniors because they provide regular payments that are used by many to cover the costs of groceries, heating bills and medicine. They also provide tax relief from a government that is addicted to taking too much money from their pockets and spending it without care, and very often without meaningful results."

My question to him is , what changed??

On Nov 1 2006 , were seniors no longer requiring the income from trusts to pay for their groceries, heating bills , & medicine--from the evening of Oct 31st , did some miracle take place I did not hear about??

Was the need for tax relief from an uncaring & reckless gov`t no longer required??--it must be that the "new" Conservative gov`t is more caring & a wiser users of gov`t revenues.

Someone hit me with a stick!!!!!

I must be dreaming!!!!

Knock me over with a feather because the sky has fallen!!!!

The sooner everyone in this country realizes that this so-called "new' gov`t has not acted in the best interest of it`s citizens , the better.

Their only accomplishment has been to kow tow to the rich & famous & let the rest of us go to hell.

Time to wise-up Canada--these guys are not here for our benefit--we are but a means to an end--give them a majority & the end will become more evident than we can bear to see.

Steve and his gang are either the most incompetent bunch to govern Canada in our long and chequered history, or the most criminally dishonest and traitorous. They are poisonous to the wellbeing of Canadian seniors and to the country as a whole.

In the long run it really doesn't matter whether they are incompetent or evil (not ignoring the probability that they are both). Either way, the damage they have done already will take decades to correct. Just as Mike Harris' poisonous legacy hangs over Ontario like a sullen cloud, so too will the Harper stench permeate Ottawa and Canada for years to come.

EVENTS

Income Trust Halloween VigilThanks to all who participated in both the Ottawa and Calgary vigils to mark the anniversary of the announcement.

WE"D LIKE SOME ANSWERS

As you well know, the ‘income trust thing’ has grown beyond the
question of whether fair taxes are paid on income from trusts. It’s
become a giant dirty snowball, and as it rolls forward it accumulates
more and more bulk. There are so many unanswered questions. Let's list a few and invite our "Accountable" government and our free press to provide some much-needed answers.

It is said “Trusts are inefficient use of capital. Why?” Two
related questions are ‘Whose money is it, anyway?’, and ‘Do Canadian
investors have a free and efficient market?’

How can information that is already in the public domain at SEDAR
make for a state secret? How could such information be used to harm
the Canadian national interest? And who would cause the harm?

Why won’t the Canadian media investigate the falsehoods and
misrepresentations told by the Minister of Finance to a committee of
Parliament? Was the Minister in contempt of Parliament?

Why won’t the Canadian media report (a) government tax revenues
gained from BCE in 2006 when BCE was a corporation to (b) government
tax revenues that would be gained in 2007 from BCE, if BCE had been
allowed to proceed to a trust, and (c) government tax revenues that
will be gained in 2007 from BCE, when BCE ownership has been carved
up as 45% foreign ownership and 55% large Canadian pension fund
ownership?